Hearing Zhang Shan's words, Changsheng nodded sternly. Thinking carefully about it, it was indeed inappropriate for him to rush to power today. If this reached the ears of the emperor, the emperor would think that as an official of the imperial court, he had put life and death aside to go to Longhu Mountain to fight. Don't say anything. The emperor was already very suspicious, and even if it were anyone else, he would be dissatisfied, thinking that he was putting Longhu Mountain before the imperial court.
"Okay, it's getting late, I have to go." Zhang Shan stood up from his seat.
Changsheng stood up in a hurry to see him off.
The two of them left the front hall and came to the courtyard. Zhang Shan said casually while walking, "I heard that you never went to court after becoming an official. Is this true?"
Changsheng laughed and acquiesced.
Zhang Shan said, "When you are an official, you must behave like an official. You still have to go to court in the morning. You are a third-grade official now. Try to do as little as possible that is unworthy of an official. You are like the crazy person who beat the imperial officials in the street before. One action is enough, but now there are rumors inside and outside the court that your attitude has changed, so you should restrain yourself appropriately in the future."
"Remember Master Uncle's teachings." Changsheng nodded and answered.
Zhang Shan added, "Also, although you have some knowledge, you have little knowledge. You should read more in the future to broaden your horizons and increase your knowledge."
"Okay." Changsheng nodded again.
After Zhang Shan went out, he waved his hand to Changsheng, beckoning him to go back, but Changsheng did not stop immediately, but continued to follow Zhang Shan to the east.
While traveling eastward, Zhang Shan asked casually, "By the way, how old are you this year?"
"Back to uncle, I'm an orphan. I don't know how old I am. I should be fifteen." Changsheng said.
Zhang Shan turned around and glanced at Changsheng, but said nothing. After a while, when he came to the intersection, Zhang Shan changed his route to the south, and Changsheng returned on his own.
Changsheng returned to the Qingyun Mountain Villa, and Datou was accompanying Yang Kai to keep vigil in the back hall. Seeing his return, Yang Kai and Datou persuaded him to go back and rest.
Changsheng was not in a hurry to leave, but sat down in the hall, adding paper money to the brazier while discussing with Yang Kai how to take care of Gu Yan's funeral.
After discussion, it was decided to suspend the funeral for one night and return home early tomorrow morning to carry the coffin and bury Gu Yan in Qingyun Mountain.
Chang Sheng’s first thought was to have the Ni family arrange the carriages and horses. After pondering for a while, he changed his mind. The Yushitai sent the carriages and horses, and then sent a team of police officers to accompany Yang Kai. The Yushitai was not only responsible for supervising the capital officials, but also the local officials. It is also supervised by Yushitai, this time under the guise of being dispatched for inspection.
Changsheng was worried that Yang Kai would handle these trivial matters alone, so he ordered Datou to accompany him. After handling Gu Yan's funeral, Datou could also take the opportunity to return home.
Jiannan Road, where Qingyun Mountain is located in Datouji Road, is located in the southwest, while Hedong Road, where Tiancanmen is located, is located in the east of due north, which is not along the road.
Changsheng had settled down at this time and missed Batulu very much, so he ordered Datou to take a trip to Mobei after returning home to see if he could find and bring Batulu back.
After agreeing on the details, Changsheng and Datou returned to the Yushitai together. He had to go to court tomorrow morning and had to sleep. Datou came back to arrange the carriages and horses, and selected the convoys to accompany him on official business.
Changsheng only slept for one watch before getting up and changing his clothes. When he led Mr. Hei out to go to court, Datou also prepared to leave with the twenty-four selected agents and two carriages.
Officials who go on inspections in other places can get double their salary, which is a good job, and they all travel on horseback. Everyone is secretly happy, but they don't dare to smile because they all know that this trip is to escort Gu Yan's coffin back to Qingyun Mountain. , to put it bluntly, it is a funeral, who dares to laugh?
Changsheng simply said a few words, asking everyone to pay attention to safety on the road, and then rode eastward.
When I arrived at the palace, I found that a large number of warriors from all walks of life had gathered in the square in front of the palace. Just like the martial arts candidates who were on the child list, the candidates on the official list of martial arts also had to enter the palace to thank them. The Beggar Clan camp did not win the chief champion and could not get the martial arts candidates, but they also If you win many martial arts candidates, you have to go to the palace to express your gratitude.
Unlike the Tongbang Wuju people, the three parties did not wear official uniforms at this time, but still wore their own clothes.
Changsheng went to the place where the horse was tied to tie up the black master, and then wanted to go to the Taoist camp to greet everyone. Seeing him walking towards his camp, Zhang Shan frowned and waved his hand, indicating that he should not get closer. Changsheng also understood Zhang Shan's intention, so he had to come from a distance He bowed his hands to everyone on his side, and then entered the palace first with the officials from the previous court.
Chang Sheng didn't know many of the officials who went to court, but quite a few knew him. When they saw him going to court, someone immediately came over to say hello and get close to him.
It is said that an evil punch will not hit anyone with a smiling face, and Changsheng will not reject people thousands of miles away. He will greet everyone politely and walk forward.
When he walked to Jinshui Bridge, he found Gao Shizhong walking in front. Gao Shizhong was the person who had recommended him under Yang Fugong's instruction. He was a minister in the province. Although Changsheng knew that this man was a fellow eunuch, he still In full view of everyone, he ran forward and thanked Gao Shizhong in front of the civil and military officials who were surrounding him. He said he sincerely thanked Gao Shizhong for his recommendation. However, he had been busy with official duties recently and had not had time to come and thank him.
Seeing Changsheng saluting and thanking him in front of many officials, Gao Shizhong was very satisfied. In addition, before he sent people to the Yushitai to fish for people, Changsheng also betrayed his face, so he smiled and nodded, saying that he was doing good for the country. , if you want to thank, thank the court and the emperor.
After greeting Gao Shizhong, Chang Sheng stood aside and raised his hand to ask Gao Shizhong to go ahead. He pretended to be cool for a while, but it was a bit painful to pretend all the way. Even if Gao Shizhong couldn't see the clues, he was pretending awkwardly.
Go to the front of the palace and wait for the hour. When the fifth watch arrives, the palace door opens wide, and civil and military officials enter the palace one after another according to their official rank.
After all the officials took their seats, two old eunuchs accompanied the emperor into the back hall. After the emperor took his seat, all the officials, both civil and military, kowtowed and saluted. Several Taoists and monks still performed the head-turning salute and the Namaste salute.
After everyone knelt down, they all lowered their heads. The emperor took the opportunity to turn his eyes to Changsheng, and at the same time, the corners of his mouth were slightly raised.
The emperor's expression made Changsheng feel very good, which meant that the emperor still had a tacit understanding with him. He knew why he had beaten the officials of the Ministry of Justice before, and he also understood why he did not come to court.
However, the emperor could give him hints, but he could not respond to the emperor because Yang Fugong was looking at him at this time.
After the salute, it was time to discuss matters. The Chinese New Year was coming soon. Government officials who were in arrears with their salary came to ask for money, various states also asked for money for disaster relief, and the troops who were fighting outside also came to ask for military pay.
Changsheng heard a very important news this time, that is, the troops sent by the Ministry of War to fight Chen Liqiu did not capture Shenzhou and Hepingzhou, and both sides were still wasting their time there.
The following report states that the emperor must have an attitude. He only said that he would raise money as soon as possible to meet his urgent needs. When he spoke, he looked at Changsheng intentionally or unintentionally. Changsheng also understood. The emperor was instructing him to continue to fight against corruption and confiscate his family.
For those troops that were sent out, the emperor also ordered the Ministry of War to issue an official document to recall them all. It was winter in the twelfth lunar month and the weather was freezing. There was no point in spending them outside. They should be recalled first and then send out troops again after the new army is prepared and formed in the next year.
In addition to asking for money, there are also worries. First, there is a rebellion in the Silla Kingdom to the east. Queen Zhensheng asked the Tang Dynasty to send troops to assist. At this time, the Tang Dynasty was already a mud Buddha crossing the river and could not save itself. How could it have time to care about it? Silla, but that cannot be said to the outside world. The reason for rejecting the True Saint Queen is also easy to find. Silla has stopped paying tribute to the Tang Dynasty for a long time, so why should it send troops to help them.
There is also the fact that Japan has been invading borders on the southeast coast in recent times, burning, killing and looting. Civil and military officials were quite indignant about this matter. They only said that the Tang Dynasty had provided many aids to Japan for hundreds of years. Japan's move was really ungrateful and repaid kindness with hatred.
But he was still angry, and there was nothing he could do about this group of pirates, but it seemed unjustifiable not to do something. The emperor was so angry that he directly issued an edict. Previously, he only expelled Japan's envoys to Tang Dynasty. This time, they will not expel them. They will be searched throughout the country and all will be imprisoned. .
At this time, the candidates for the martial arts examination had been waiting outside the palace for a long time. The emperor suspended the discussion and summoned everyone.
Zhang Shan, the abbot of Longhu Mountain, and Tongchen, the abbot of Shaolin Temple, went first, followed by a group of Taoists, monks and nuns, followed by martial arts examiners from various sects. Like the martial arts examiners of the Tong Bang, there were also 240 martial arts examiners on the main list.
Since there had never been any edicts before, after entering the palace to see the ceremony, the eunuchs read out and chanted the edicts one by one. The official positions awarded to the military examiners on the official list did not include Beijing officials, but were all military attachés. General.
Since there were only two chief champions, Long Haotian of the Beggar Clan was awarded the title of General of the Auxiliary Country.
When the eunuch thought about Long Haotian's official position, Changsheng frowned. General Fuguo was a second-rank official. The Beggar Clan camp didn't win the title of Chief Champion, so why should Long Haotian be given such a high official position.
However, after thinking about it, I was relieved. Long Haotian was getting close to the eunuchs. This move must not have been the emperor's intention, but the eunuchs must have been responsible for it.
The penultimate one is the abbot of Shaolin Temple, Tong Chen, who was named the protector of the country and the Taibao.
Protector of the Country is not a formal official position in the imperial court, it is just a title. It is reasonable to add the title of Taibao, because although the Taibao is also a false position, it has a grade and is a real one.
Zhang Shan was named the Protector of the Country and was granted the title of Grand Master. The Grand Master was also a fictitious position of the first rank. However, although the Grand Master, the Taifu and the Taibao were both of the first rank, the Grand Master was ranked highest. Although it was of no use, it was still important. It can highlight the court's respect and attention to Taoism.
After the decree was announced, everyone thanked him loudly.
Then the eunuch took out another imperial edict and began to read it out. He said that there were wars everywhere and evil spirits haunting the world. It was the time for the imperial court to recruit people. It was preparing to form a new army and recruit three hundred thousand soldiers. The generals each commanded one hundred thousand troops to quell rebellions, suppress bandits, and bring peace to the country.
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the Taoist camp changed drastically, and Chang Sheng was also very surprised. He had met with Zhang Shan last night, and he knew about the recruitment of 300,000 troops, but the implication of Zhang Shan's words was that the 300,000 soldiers would be recruited. They were all under his command, but why did each of them now have one hundred thousand under his command?
Since he was standing very close to the front, he could see Zhang Shan's expression. Although Zhang Shan didn't act too aggressively, his expression was very ugly, which showed that the changes in front of him were not what Zhang Shan had expected.
After the eunuch announced the decree, Zhang Shan, Tong Chen, and Long Haotian received the decree loudly. The emperor encouraged him a few more words, and then withdrew from the court and left.
After the emperor left, Changsheng turned to look at Zhang Shan, and happened to see Zhang Shan sighing secretly.
Changsheng also sighed. Those self-respecting Jiedu commanders often had hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. If all these 300,000 soldiers and horses were handed over to Zhang Shan's command, there might still be a possibility of suppressing the rebellion. Now it is divided into two parts. Three, Zhang Shan only got one third. Zhang Shan is a genius, and the few soldiers and horses in his hand are not enough to support him to turn the tide...
